A jazz artist stepping into the studio to record some Thelonious Monk can approach the task from different angles. They can go all in and make a statement with solely Monk tunes. Pianist Ran Blake’s Epistrophy (1991) is one example of this approach. Or the artist can pick one of their favorite Monk classics (or two or three) and present them alongside a batch of originals and/or tunes by other artists to create a set list. Almost everybody with a substantial discography has paid homage to the legend in this way. Or, as is the case with bassist Dayna Stephens, the Monk songbook can be examined for some lesser-known jewels to be molded into an (almost) all-Monk show.
That disc is Monk’d, and as described, we find not so much his more familiar work…